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In Relocation, Gender, and Emotion, Sue Jervis gives the reader a dense and complex perspective on the emotional disruptions experienced by military spouses as a result of the numerous and often sudden relocations required for military families. The main goal of the book, the author says, is to explore both intrapsychic (internal) and also sociological (external) dynamics contributing to the distress that spouses often experience in these frequent relocations.
The book describes a research project conducted by Jervis in which she interviewed fifteen British military spouses (14 women and 1 man), ranging in age from mid-20s to ‘near retirement’. (Jervis has published other, shorter write-ups of this research, including two book chapters cited in this volume.) It is important to note - and she explores this in some depth - that Jervis herself is a military wife who has experienced relocation as one of the demands of her husband's career.
Her primary finding - which is somewhat difficult to sift out - might be summarised as follows: women who are trailing spouses of military men experience significant emotional upheaval in adjusting to the many relocations. Jervis argues that what could be seen as ‘normal’ distress upon such a move is amplified by the military's treatment of spouses. The military culture (‘just get on with it’) discourages women from seeking emotional support for their distress and thus inhibits a necessary mourning process. Jervis argues that the military culture enhances the normal disorientation of relocation because spouses are treated as extensions of their husbands, their identities erased, rather than as independent individuals. She discusses the difficulty that women face in sacrificing careers, friendships, family relationships, and household routines to make each, sometimes sudden, move.